plaga

From Latin plāga.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈpla.ɣə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈpla.ɣa]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

plaga f (plural plagues)

1. plague
2. jokester

• “plaga”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “plaga”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “plaga” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “plaga” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ˈpʰlaːɣa/

  Rhymes: -aːɣa

plaga (weak verb, third-person singular past indicative plagaði, supine plagað)

1. to bother, plague

Borrowed from Latin plaga (“tract, region, quarter, zone”). Compare piaggia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpla.ɡa/
• Rhymes: -aɡa
• Hyphenation: plà‧ga

plaga f (plural plaghe)

1. region, district
2. (obsolete) beach

Related to plangō (“to strike”), from *pleh₂k-, *pleh₂g-. Cognate with Ancient Greek πληγή (plēgḗ, “a blow, stroke”) and Albanian plojë (“slaughter; bloodletting”).^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpɫaː.ɡa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈplaː.ɡa]

plāga f (genitive plāgae); first declension

1. plague, misfortune

   Synonyms: malum, cruciātus, nūbēs, miseria, īnfortūnium, calamitās, cāsus, vulnus

2. stroke, blow, cut, strike

   Synonyms: ictus, vulnus, colaphus, pulsus

3. wound, gash, injury

   Synonyms: vulnus, noxa, incommoditās, damnum

First-declension noun.

Borrowings:

Apparently from a Proto-Indo-European *plag-, and cognate with Ancient Greek πλάγος (plágos, “side, flank”), Proto-Germanic *flakaz (“flat, smooth”), though the existence of such a root and its potential relation to Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”) raises formal issues.^[2]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpɫa.ɡa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈplaː.ɡa]

plaga f (genitive plagae); first declension

2. tract, region, quarter, zone
   • (Can we date this quote?) Attributed to Ennius by Cicero in De divinatione, Book II, Chapter XIII

     Quod est ante pedes nemo spectat, caeli scrutantur plagas.

     What is before the feet, noone regards; the skies are searched in the regions.

First-declension noun.

• ⇒ Late Latin: plagia
  • Corsican: piaghja
  • Dalmatian: plui
  • Italian: piaggia
  • Old French:
    • French: plage (see there for further descendants)
    • Walloon: pladje
  • Old Occitan:
    • Catalan: platja
    • Occitan: plaja
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: praia, praya
    • Fala: playa
    • Galician: praia
    • Portuguese: praia, praya (obsolete)
      • → Hong Kong English: praya
      • → Hunsrik: Praia
      • → Nheengatu: praya
  • Old Spanish:
    • Spanish: playa, plasha (pronunciation spelling, representing Rioplatense Spanish)
      • ⇒ Cebuano: aplaya
      • → English: playa
      • → Papiamentu: playa
      • → Swedish: playa
      • ⇒ Tagalog: aplaya
    • → Basque: plaia
  • Sicilian: praja
• → Italian: plaga
• → Portuguese: plaga

From Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to weave”). Cognate with Ancient Greek πλέκω (plékō, “braid”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpɫa.ɡa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈplaː.ɡa]

plaga f (genitive plagae); first declension (chiefly plural only)

1. a hunting net, web, used to set traps, snares

   Synonyms: rēte, cassis

   Near-synonym: tēla

   • c. 206 BCE, Plautus, Miles Gloriosus 608–609:

     Sed speculabor, ne quis aut hinc aut ab laeva aut dextera
     nostro consilio venator adsit cum auritis plagis.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.131:

     [...] rētia rāra, plagae, lātō vēnābula ferrō, [...].

     [Young hunters carrying] wide-meshed nets, traps, [and] hunting spears [tipped] with broad blades, [...].
     (The only appearance of this word in Virgil’s poetry. The “rētia rāra” are thin or widely-woven nets; in context, the “plagae” may be understood as stronger nets, snares, traps, or even ropes for securing the “retia.” Translations vary.)

   • 23 BCE – 13 BCE, Horace, Odes 3.5.32:

     Si pugnat extricata densis
     cerva plagis, erit ille fortis
     qui perfidis se credidit hostibus
     et Marte Poenos proteret altero; […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   1. (figuratively):

      Synonyms: trānsenna, laqueus, rēte, cassis, pedica

      • c. 206 BCE, Plautus, Miles Gloriosus 4.9.11:

        Ipsus illic sese iam impedivit in plagas; […]

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • 45 BCE, Cicero, Academica 48:

        Posthac tamen, cum haec quaeremus, potius de dissensionibus tantis summorum uirorum disseramus, de obscuritate naturae deque errore tot philosophorum, qui de bonis contrariisque rebus tanto opere discrepant, ut, cum plus uno uerum esse non possit, iacere necesse sit tot tam nobilis disciplinas, quam de oculorum sensuumque reliquorum mendaciis et de sorite aut pseudomeno, quas plagas ipsi contra se Stoici texuerunt.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (pre-classical, only attested in glosses from Varro by Nonius) bedcurtain, curtain

   Synonym: plagula

First-declension noun.

• “plaga¹”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “plaga²”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “plaga³”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “plaga”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to inflict a death-blow: plagam extremam or mortiferam infligere
    
  • to inflict a mortal wound on some one: mortiferam plagam alicui infligere
    
• "plaga", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• plaga, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

• plagen (of noun)

(of verb)

• plaget
• plagde (simple past)
• plagd (past participle)

plaga m or f

1. definite feminine singular of plage

plaga

1. inflection of plage:
   1. simple past
   2. past participle

plaga f

1. definite singular of plage

Learned borrowing from Latin plāga. Doublet of płacz.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpla.ɡa/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɡa
• Syllabification: pla‧ga

plaga f

1. plague

   Synonym: zaraza

2. nuisance

• plaga in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• plaga in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from Latin plāga.

• Hyphenation: pla‧ga

plaga f (plural plagas)

1. (formal) region, country

   Synonyms: região, país

• “plaga”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “plaga”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• IPA^(key): /ˈplaɡa/ [ˈpla.ɣ̞a]
• Rhymes: -aɡa
• Syllabification: pla‧ga

Borrowed from Latin plāga. Compare the inherited llaga.

plaga f (plural plagas)

1. plague

   Synonym: peste

2. nuisance

   Synonyms: molestia, engorro

plaga

1. inflection of plagar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “plaga”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025